Is democracy dying?
Radical with Amol Rajan
BBC
4.5 • 919 Ratings
🗓️ 11 January 2024
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Why are younger voters around the world turning their back on democracy in favour of strongman leaders who are prepared to defy parliaments?
In a year when more than two billion people in 50 countries will go to the polls – the biggest global election year in history – Amol and Nick talk to Lord Gus O’Donnell, the former head of the civil service who has been travelling the world looking for ways of restoring trust in democracy.
And they also hear from Ravish Kumar, a news anchor in India who fell foul of Narendra Modi’s government – with career-threatening consequences.
Plus – just what role did Nick play in one of the most consequential press conferences of the former coalition government?
Episodes of The Today Podcast land every Thursday and watch out for bonus episodes. Subscribe on BBC Sounds to get Amol and Nick's take on the biggest stories of the week, with insights from behind the scenes at the UK's most influential radio news programme.
If you would like a question answering, get in touch by sending us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 4346 or email us Today@bbc.co.uk
The Today Podcast is hosted by Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson, both presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the UK’s most influential radio news programme. Amol was the BBC’s media editor for six years and is the former editor of the Independent, he’s also the current presenter of University Challenge. Nick has presented the Today programme since 2015, he was the BBC’s political editor for ten years before that and also previously worked as ITV’s political editor.
The senior producer is Tom Smithard, the producer is Joshua Tindall. Technical production from Jake Graysmark. The editors are Jonathan Aspinwall and Louisa Lewis. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. I've just got a small question for you. I love a small question. Democracy. Is that the right way to run a country, do you think? Well, Nick, I'd say it was the worst form of government, except for all the others that had been tried from time to time. Oh, that's enough of Churchill, Link. Well, I have got a son called Winston. So what more do you expect? |
| 0:22.0 | The reason I'm asking you the question is there's a bit of polling that I've seen. |
| 0:26.6 | Where people are asked that question, is democracy the right way to run a country? |
| 0:31.8 | Or would you rather, a strong man who doesn't have elections? |
| 0:36.5 | What would you guess would the figures be? |
| 0:39.3 | Staggeringly, people in their late teens and early 20s, in other words, first-time voters and those beyond, |
| 0:45.4 | in equal numbers, believe in a strong man as a way to run the country compared with democracy. |
| 0:50.3 | Now, as people get older in their 30s and beyond those lines, separate massively. |
| 0:55.9 | But there is huge support for getting rid of democracy. |
| 1:00.1 | One of the many things that's enjoyable about this podcast is how much we learn from the briefs we get. |
| 1:04.0 | And I had no idea that globally, in places like Argentina, elsewhere, young people are giving up on democracy in a big way. |
| 1:11.9 | And if you ask the question, is democracy dying? |
| 1:15.3 | Most people would point to very famous people in America, in Hungary, in Brazil, and say that |
| 1:21.4 | strong man leaders and autocrats is the reason democracy is in trouble. |
| 1:25.7 | In fact, the answer may be elsewhere. |
| 1:28.8 | It's surprising, and that's why today we are going to ask, is democracy dying? |
| 1:32.6 | Let's do it. |
| 1:50.4 | It's Amol. And it's Nick. and we're in the Today podcast studio and as we said when we launched this podcast Nick and I all the presenters all the team often have interesting |
| 1:55.0 | conversations away from the microphone which we can't develop on the today program and on |
| 1:59.3 | this podcast we can. |
| 2:01.1 | And Nick, one of the reasons we're doing this subject today is because you and I had a |
| 2:05.0 | fascinating conversation about a documentary that you've seen which I could tell profoundly moved |
... |
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